He had had such experience with men himself.
"But why have you not spoken of it before--and to Colonel Pendleton ?" "He did not choose to tell ME," said Yerba, with feminine dexterity.
"I have preferred to keep it myself a secret till I am of age." "When Colonel Pendleton and some of the other trustees have no right to say anything," thought Paul quickly.

She had evidently trusted him.
Yet, fascinated as he had been by her audacity, he did not know whether to be pleased, or the reverse.

He would have preferred to be placed on an equal footing with Josita Castro.

She anticipated his thoughts by saying, with half-raised eyelids:-- "What do YOU think of it ?" "It seems to be so natural and obvious an explanation of the mystery that I only wonder it was not thought of before," said Paul, with that perfect sincerity that made his sympathy so effective.
"You see,"-- still under her pretty eyelids, and the tender promise of a smile parting her little mouth,--"I'm believing that you tell the truth when you say you don't know anything about it." It was a desperate moment with Paul, but his sympathetic instincts, and possibly his luck, triumphed.

His momentary hesitation easily simulated the caution of a conscientious man; his knit eyebrows and bright eyes, lowered in an effort of memory, did the rest.